


to live and to love

by theriveroflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alterous attraction, Canon Compliant, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee, Minor Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Multi, Past Blake Belladonna/Adam Taurus, Past Blake Belladonna/Ilia Amitola, Polyamory, Spoilers: Volume 8 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: Blake Belladonna has loved a lot of people over the course of her life.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	to live and to love

**Author's Note:**

> Relationships are Complicated.
> 
> Anyways, that new episode, huh? I was thinking about it for the rest of the day after I saw it. Even when I was trying to fall asleep.
> 
> I don't think these words do the fic I was writing in my head last night justice.
> 
> This volume really did say Newspaper rights,,,,

Blake loves Ruby and Weiss. It simply is. They’re teammates, and that to Blake implies love. Has always implied some kind of love, even if what she feels might not be within the expectations of that.

Her love for them is different from what she feels for Yang. Perhaps it’s most akin to what she felt for Ilia while she and Adam were together. Not the same kind of love, but not quite friendship. Different.

Blake was more cautious with loving after Adam. But yet her team managed to worm their way into her heart, and she can’t bring herself to regret it. And yet…

(The only person she’s ever had for a partner or a teammate was Ilia, and that love reminds her of this one.)

Ruby and Weiss both need her support, sometimes. Weiss takes her hand when standing up to Jacques, and though Ruby never asks for support Blake is willing to provide anyways.

So it doesn’t quite hurt when Yang chooses to go with the other team, to choose to save Mantle. She and Yang might flirt from time to time, but they haven’t really talked about it yet. Not much of a chance, in between everything. She loves Yang.

Blake still knows that she would choose Yang over any of them.

(Adam told her that was wrong, that she had to choose, that it was him or Ilia, that it was Faunus or humans, that it was black or white.)

(It isn’t, even now when she has a clear choice that she would pick. There is no one to force her choice anymore, though.)

At the Schnee manor Nora stays in Weiss’s old room; Blake and Ruby claim a guest room to themselves, and while they could go for separate rooms (the mansion is larger than it has any right to be) they don’t. They curl up together and try to sleep, and Blake continues to offer silent support to Ruby.

Weiss joins them for a brief nap. They don’t get much time, though, in between worrying about Nora and the launch of Amity and finding some way to save  _ everyone  _ even as May calls it impossible.

And then Penny crashes in front of the mansion, and Blake is sent briefly into panic. However, Ruby and Weiss are more directly affected. Blake knows she has to support them both especially now. She doesn’t have the same connection with Penny they do, somewhat like her connection with Yang but different because there’s more to balance there. Ruby, Weiss, and Whitley take Penny upstairs to be treated, and Blake watches their backs.

Blake supports them the only way she knows how. She’s never been good at reassurance, never really had to learn how. She was taught how to stand, how to be a good leader. Not how to comfort someone individually, just how to quell populations.

When she and Ruby go to the generator, Blake tells Ruby what she thinks Ruby will want to hear. That she is loved, that Blake admires her a lot, that she’s here for her.

It might be different from how Blake loves Yang, but Blake loves Ruby too.

That  _ thing  _ attacks, and it takes Ruby. Salem…wants Ruby, she thinks at first, and then it occurs to her that it’s  _ Penny _ that the monster wants. The only reason it’s distracted is because Penny’s scent is all over Ruby, and Blake is briefly distracted with worry for Weiss (and Whitley too).

Blake can’t do anything  _ except  _ fight, make sure it doesn’t take Ruby away from her and everyone else. When it realizes that it has the wrong person it lets Ruby go -- but it prowls into the Schnee mansion instead, looking for who it really wants.

They still have bigger problems -- or at least more immediate ones. More Grimm. More enemies to defeat. A Centinel comes out of the ground, and even though she recognizes it as a Centinel it’s different. Spewing bright green liquid out, and bigger than any she’s seen before. Even more grotesque.

It’s attacking Ruby, and Ruby is down for now, Auraless after that monster came through. Blake needs to fight the Centinel. At least try.

Blake has to save her. If Ruby dies, they’re finished. Blake doesn’t know if she could go on after that. 

She prays that Ruby can hear her, even out of it as she is, and Ruby  _ does.  _ She’s in the jaws of it, about to be eaten when Ruby takes it out, and Blake couldn’t be more grateful.

They head back in, trying to find that talking Grimm before it reaches its actual target. Penny’s eyes flicker between red and green a lot, and Blake can sense that they’re all afraid too.

But when it’s about to escape, Penny in its jaws, Ruby…Ruby does it. She uses whatever thing her eyes do to try and defeat the Grimm. It’s taken aback for a bit, and when it comes back…

Someone’s in there, and she almost thinks it’s Adam for a split second inside, and then she remembers that Adam is dead (permanently), and the Faunus inside has ears instead of horns.

They’re all stunned at the revelation. What kind of monstrosity would create such a thing? She knows of Salem, but she doesn’t know exactly what Salem has become.

And then Willow and Whitley push the statue onto the monster, killing it.

“What was that?” Weiss asks.

They should pick back up the statue. Figure out what remains of that person entrapped in Grimm flesh. Figure out what Salem  _ did  _ to it.

Blake swallows. “I don’t know.”

“It…that person had silver eyes,” Ruby whispers, and a chill runs down Blake’s spine.

That could have been Ruby. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t, and if Blake has anything to say about it Ruby will  _ never  _ suffer that sort of fate.

The danger isn’t over, she knows. As long as Salem is undefeated, the world is in danger. But for now, their little team RNB(P)W isn’t.


End file.
